It’s budget time: ASHA workers list out demands

Bengaluru: The Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers’ union, which is affiliated to the All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC) has submitted a list of demands to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, ahead of the state budget which is likely to be presented in the first week of March.

The demands include an increase in honorarium to Rs 12,000. Currently, they earn Rs 4,000 from the state government and variable incentive-based pay from the central government, for completing specific tasks under national health programmes.

However, owing to technical issues on the online portal even their completed tasks do not get updated and their incentives never reach them. Therefore, their demands also include fixing the technical glitches in the portal.

The union also requested the central government to clear the pending incentive-based pay and honorarium for the month of July. They said that the Rs 10,000 Covid risk incentive announced for other healthcare workers such as D-group staff was never extended to them for performing their corona duty. The state government had earlier promised a risk incentive of Rs 3,000 for ASHA workers on corona duty, but that did not reach all of them. They demanded that the funds for those be released too.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on February 9 said he will present the state budget in the first week of March and the date will be decided in a day or two.

Speaking to reporters at Rajanahalli village in Davanagere, the Chief Minister had said he has started holding pre-budget consultations with ministers and senior officers and that he will do his best within the financial constraints.

“We are going to present a good budget for the year 2021-22,” the CM said.